Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has powers to impose sanctions on developers for providing unfinished or poor quality homes to homeowners.

My Department sets the standards that developers are required to follow including through planning requirements and building regulations. Local planning authorities and building control bodies hold enforcement powers. Developers are required to ensure that new houses are built correctly and to comply with building regulations. Building inspectors check to ensure that these requirements are met on new homes. The Department may also restrict access to Government support or funding such as Help to Buy, which has recently been used to exclude Rydon Homes where there are concerns about unacceptable business practices.

The Building Safety Bill, currently before Parliament, includes provisions to strengthen the building safety regime including through the Building Safety Regulator, which will have oversight of the whole of the built environment and the New Homes Ombudsman scheme. Developers will be required to become members of the Ombudsman scheme, which will investigate and determine complaints from new build homebuyers against their developers.